LIBERALS STILL DIVIDED ON 18C

Less than a week after a range of Liberal backbenchers declared their support in the Senate for a Bill to water down the hate speech protection in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Turnbull Government frontbencher, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has revealed her own support for weakening the Act.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells, who as Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs is responsible for fostering community harmony, today made her own suggestion for weakening the provision which has protected Australians from hate speech for twenty years:

“I think the appropriate balance that could be struck in relation to 18C would be to insert an objective ordinary person test into 18C.”